Fakhrul flies to NY to meet UNSG

Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday left Dhaka for New York to meet United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the invitation of the UN chief.BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan told New Age that the party secretary general would hold talks with UN secretary general Guterres at UN headquarters in New York.The issues like the latest political situation of the country and the upcoming parliamentary polls might come up for discussion during the talks, Nazrul said.Some BNP leaders from London might join Fakhrul in New York, party sources said.The BNP secretary general left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka for New York by a regular flight of Emirates Airlines around 1:40 am on Wednesday, according to BNP chairperson’s press wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan.Fakhrul likely to return home on September 16, the party source said. Earlier in the last week of January, BNP had sent a letter to the UN secretary general, Guterres, requesting him to mediate dialogue between the ruling party and opposition parties for making the 11th parliamentary polls free, fair, neutral and participatory. BNP and most of the opposition parties had boycotted the ‘one-sided’ 10th parliamentary polls held on January 5, 2014 under Awami League-led government. The then UN assistant secretary general for political affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco had visited Dhaka in December 2013 for mediating dialogue between the ruling Awami League and main opposition BNP, without any success.